North Korea warns it will defend itself against U.S. ‘aggression’

North Korea warned it would defend itself against “reckless acts of aggression” after the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier strike group toward the Korean peninsula.

North Korea’s foreign ministry said the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson along with a missile carrier and two destroyers showed “reckless moves for invading” had “reached a serious phase,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday.

“We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” the ministry said, according to the KCNA.

“The DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US,” it added, referring to the country’s full title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea vowed to bolster its defenses over the weekend to protect itself against missile strikes such as those ordered by President Trump against an air base in Syria last week in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 civilians.

A North Korean soldier looks at the south side while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was visiting the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, March 17, 2017. Lee Jin-man, PoolThe strike group had been scheduled to leave from Singapore for port visits to Australia on Saturday, but Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, ordered it to head north toward Korean waters instead “as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific.”

North Korea held a one-day parliamentary meeting Tuesday to approve the budget and reshuffle the Cabinet, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The meeting comes amid speculation that Pyongyang may conduct its sixth nuclear test or fire a missile around the time of key anniversaries in April, Yonhap reported.

On Saturday, North Korea will celebrate the birthday of Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong Un who ruled the North for 46 years. Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile last week ahead of meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.